Adulting goals for the guys in 2025

We don’t want to jinx it (remember 2020-fun?) but we’re here to thrive in 2025. And by we, we mean our four favourite guys – Adulting’s Bonga, Eric, Vuyani and Mpho – who’re back for a third season of living large. Our friends are out to excel in everything, from business to baby-making, friendships to fun nights. And to do that, they’ll need firm goals in mind. After seeing what they get up to in episode 1, we have some notes. 

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2025 goals for amaGents

Bonga Tembe (Thembinkosi Mthembu)

Bonga has it all, and he wants more. He’s gone from being the struggling son of a deadbeat dad, to a tenderpreneur and project manager-owner of a multi-million-Rand construction and development business. And from being Mr One Night Stand to Mr One Woman Man. Yes, our bachelor deluxe is now the wife guy. 

2025 goals: Keep the money flowing like champagne and get to work on his biggest construction project ever – the creation of his first son and heir, Sazofika, with his wife and partner, Nkanyezi (Londeka Sishi), a high-flying businesswoman. Sounds fun, right? But this development project hits an instant complication when Nkanyezi announces that she’s being made partner … and that’ll mean a five-year delay on project Sazofika. Can Bonga negotiate a better timeline or is this former runaway groom going to throw his hands in the air and make a mess? And hey, can South Africa do more to support the working mothers?

Episode 1 notes: Bonga is not spending generational wealth, guys. So we hope he’s socking away a lot more than he’s spending in “pre-push” presents. A Land Rover Range Rover Velar is at least one-and-a-half million Rand new (with prices for some models rising over R2 million). If he goes bankrupt, Bonga will have to drive around on that ridiculously desirable Kids Electric Ride On Car AMG Mercedes G63 we see on his bar. Clocking in at a mere R5 000, it reaches a breathtaking 3-5km/h. Hold onto your hats.

Vuyani (Luthando “BU” Mthembu)

This handsome joker, fashionista and former escort can resist anything but temptation. Despite his charm, beauty, kindness and emotional intelligence, his fickle nature has led to him burning a whole lot of bridges with his family, lovers and friends. Yes, his taste is impeccable but his love of labels comes at a steep price.

2025 goals: To become the King of Clubs. He’s starting the year with making a roaring success out of his latest project, V-Unights Lifestyle – a high-class nightclub and event space in Johannesburg’s Northern suburbs. Despite numerous setbacks (for starters, he bought a club space that needed extensive renovations and had an expired liquor licence), the launch event is everything he could have dreamed of, complete with real-life singer KO performing his hit single Let Me Cook. But Vuyani is going to need to learn how to balance the books at work and at home. Above all, he’s going to have to unlearn his habit of sabotaging his own success – like when he ditched his construction job, left his fashion boutique retail job to go party in Dubai on a whim, or when he wrecked his job as a personal trainer by becoming his clients’ gigolo on the side.

Episode 1 notes: Let it sink in that Vuyani’s financial backer is his controlling, abusive (in every sense – verbally, physically and sexually) lover, high-powered government minister Beth (Winnie Ntshaba). So Vuyani is going to need to build up his mental strength and create an exit plan for when this all blows up in his face again. And it will, because a nightclub filled with Joburg’s gorgeous Black Diamonds in a party mood? That’s Vuyani’s catnip and his Kryptonite. And Beth is a jealous god, who’s quick to take credit for anything good in his life.

Mpho (Thabiso Rammusi)

Electrical engineer and contractor Mpho cheated his way out of a marriage, leaving him as the father of three young children – two boys with his ex-wife Zithulele (Lungile Duma), and one girl with his mistress, Palesa (Diddy Padi). Having friends with champagne money is tough when you’re a suburban dad on a budget, and as a result, Mpho is frequently salty. Unfortunately, he has a tendency to become an abusive liar because he blames his problems on the women in his life, which has led to a divorce and a restraining order

2025 goals: What Mpho wants is more sex and fewer bills. What he needs is to understand the full cost of having children, not just financially, but in terms of how the time cost affects job opportunities – especially when you’re the one waiting in queues for hours at government clinics every time they are sick. In a modern city, without your village surrounding you, childcare is a relentless and exhausting full-time job. 

Episode 1 notes: Even if you’re on team Mpho Can Choke, you have to admit that kids don’t need expensive extra lessons for non-academics. You can be bad at that stuff and still have fun! So there is no excuse for a 2am phone call demanding fees that have not been negotiated by your lawyers, Zithulele! That’s not only rude, it puts a gentleman, in golfing terms, “off his stroke”. That said, dodging calls is not how you solve this problem.

Eric (Nhlanhla Kunene)

He’s a loving dad, a great friend, and a superb mechanic. He can be wise, sensible and thoughtful. But every time you think Eric is secretly the smartest of his friends, he’ll prove you wrong. This former hijacker and gangster not only lost his former babymama to a hijacking, he lost his freedom to a prison sentence and nearly died in a hijacking gone wrong. But once you’ve had “easy” money, the slow grind of work-for-pay is a hard pill to swallow.

2025 goals: Try to live a normal life! Stick with his new job as an auto mechanic for a large firm without getting written up for lateness (Eric sold his BMW to pay for his daughter’s school fees, so he’s taking a taxi these days) or getting in the boss’s face to intimidate him. And he wants to keep dating his daughter’s bougie, city girl therapist, Mapaseka (Gaisang Noge) while steering clear of his crazy hoodrat hookup Minkie (Samkelo Ndlovu), since that usually starts with kisses and ends up with Eric waving guns and screaming.

Episode 1 notes: After hearing MaGetty’s (Mam’Nandi Nyembe) prayer for her great-granddaughter, Eric’s daughter Ncumisa (Siphesihle Khanyile), who’s now in boarding school, we’d love to see her prayer book. Aaaand as a second note, have you ever had a New Year’s resolution you broke on 2 January? Eric might have reached out to Minkie to finesse a liquor licence and save Vuyani’s perky behind, but the way he looked at her? Slutty choirboy. And acting like a dog with a bone when he sees her dancing with someone else at the club isn’t helping his case. 

Happy 2025 and good luck to all four of you … and to all of us getting out there and braving everything Adulting throws our way!

Stream Adulting Season 1-3 now. New episodes each Saturday.